Irish Pipers Club of Boston Holds its First Concert on January 11, 1910 in the South End

Patsy Touhey

"The first concert of the Irish Pipers' Club of Boston was held in Wells Memorial Hall on Tuesday, January 11, 1910," according to The Republic Newspaper published on January 15, 1910.

The hall was located at 978 Washington Street in Boston's South End, then a heavily Irish neighborhood.

The concert was significant for Irish music historians because it included notable uilleann pipers Michael and William Hanafin and John Nolan. And guests in the audience were identified as Sergeant James Early of the Irish Music Club of Chicago and Patsy Touhey, who was born in Galway and grew up in South Boston. Touhey was considered by many to be the finest piper of his generation.

Other performers included singer Peter O'Neill, Irish step dancer James Cahill and the Irish Choral Society, led by director Charles F. Forrester.

The Republic Newspaper was owned by John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, the grandfather of President John F. Kennedy.

For more about Irish music in Boston, see Irish Boston: A Lively Look at Boston's Colorful Irish Past.

For details on Irish cultural activities in greater Boston, visit IrishBoston.org.

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